Can't really argue with this...

[perlmonger]

Via brad, here are some wise words from Linus Torvalds:

When you hear voices in your head that tell you to shoot the pope, do you
do what they say? Same thing goes for customers and managers. They are the
crazy voices in your head, and you need to set them right, not just
blindly do what they ask for.

Comments

[spride.livejournal.com]

That only works when the price of your software is zero. It's not a good strategy to show to the bank.

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Largely true, when you're selling something. I'm sure though that you remember some of the dumbass things that users, including and often especially managers can ask for. Then it may be perfectly reasonable to not give them exactly what they ask for but try and find an alternative that provides the required business benefit (assuming there actually was one) without causing problems elsewhere. I've had a number of such things this week alone.

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, there's a necessary diplomacy in how that is actually expressed both to managers and customers. I can't actually believe you doubt the principle though...

[spride.livejournal.com]

Well IME the customer usually wants very litte - they want systems that are simple, robust and available. MS and others are guilty of inculcating the cultures of selling-up, to the point where it's seen as absolutely necessary that the database engine can send MAPI and MIME email, that the word processor incorporates marching-ant marquees and live video, that the spreadsheet can take a bitmap image of some cells and embed it back in a spreadsheet. I can't belive any customer ever asked for this crap. Bloat and feeping creaturism comes from the software companies deciding that something would be 'really cool' and then inflicting it on the next iteration, and subsequently spending a fortune on marketing to convice us we wanted it in the first place. "Computer journalists" are highly complicit in this swindle, daring to say nothing lest they lose their free holidays around the world as a result.